Chapter 54: The Battle
Reinhard looked toward the direction Yumesaki pointed, and a woman dressed in a maid uniform with long, flowing hair walked into his line of sight.
She was incredibly beautiful, though she carried a distinctly arrogant air. Even in a maid uniform, every single movement she made commanded the authority of a military general.
*The strongest in the Empire?* Reinhard thought to himself. As she came to a stop before him, he politely extended his hand.
"Hello, Miss Esdeath. I am Reinhard."
Esdeath looked the red-haired Sword Saint up and down. His posture was perfectly composed, his expression firm, and every movement gave off the unshakeable impression of a massive mountain.
Just a moment prior, Yumesaki's voice had suddenly echoed inside her mind.
*I've found a powerful opponent for you. Get to the Dungeon entrance quickly.*
It was undoubtedly Telepathy Magic. Having received the notice, Esdeath had rushed over as fast as she could. Now that she was looking at him, he seemed like a decent opponent. The trip wouldn't be a waste.
"Esdeath, this is Reinhard, the contemporary Sword Saint from the Kingdom of Lugnica," Yumesaki introduced. "Though he'd never admit it himself, in my eyes, he should be considered the strongest in his world."
Hearing Yumesaki's introduction, Reinhard could only manage a wry smile. "You think far too highly of me. In truth, with my current strength, I am still a long way from being called the strongest in the world."
Yumesaki ignored Reinhard's modesty, turning his head to look at Esdeath instead. "Well? How do you like the opponent I picked out for you?"
"Whether he's the strongest or not is something we'll find out after we fight," Esdeath replied, a hint of impatience bleeding into her voice as a faint wave of freezing air began to radiate from her body.
Reinhard, however, frowned slightly. "Are we going to fight here?" He glanced around. The foot traffic in the plaza was incredibly dense. Once a battle of this scale broke out, innocent bystanders would inevitably be caught in the crossfire. Reinhard fundamentally refused to let that happen.
"In that case, let's head into the Dungeon," Yumesaki said, snapping his fingers.
Without a single hint of warning, the world shifted.
One second, Esdeath and Reinhard were standing in the open plaza near the Tower of Babel. The next second, the stone tiles beneath their feet had turned into layers of deep purple bedrock. The sunlight vanished entirely, replaced by a dim, cold luminescence emitted by a type of glowing moss growing along the walls.
The 30th floor of the Dungeon. It was the perfect place for them to clash.
Esdeath froze for a fraction of a second, and then she let out a loud, ringing laugh. Her voice echoed through the vast underground chamber, carrying a manic excitement that could make anyone's skin crawl. The perfect stage and the perfect opponent had been laid out just for her; how could she not laugh?
"Yumesaki, you've finally, *finally* done something to make me happy!"
Esdeath's laughter grew louder as her long, ice-blue hair whipped through the air without any wind. With her at the absolute center, the temperature within a fifty-meter radius began to plummet drastically. The glowing moss on the stone walls froze into solid ice crystals, making a sharp, cracking sound like glass beads shattering across the floor as the frost knit itself together.
A thick layer of ice rapidly coated the ground beneath her feet, and a freezing fog spread out like a sudden tide. The moisture in the air crystallized in an instant, floating suspended in midair and refracting the dim light into strange, shifting colors.
"Reinhard, was it? Now, let me see what you've got."
She snapped her right arm out. Five sharp icicle blades condensed out of thin air beside her, their tips locked onto the red-haired Sword Saint standing thirty paces away.
"Let's see just how strong the 'strongest in the world' actually is!"
The moment the words left her mouth, the five ice blades tore through the air, whistling fiercely as they shot toward Reinhard.
At the exact same time, Esdeath lunged forward. A ring of ice exploded beneath her boots, sending her speed skyrocketing across the frozen floor. She moved like a literal cannonball, trailing right behind her own projectiles.
Raising her right arm high, a massive frozen ring stretching three meters long materialized around her forearm. The edge of the ring was as thin as a cricket's wing, carrying a terrifying kinetic energy capable of cleaving a small hill clean in two.
Pure, unadulterated killing intent poured from Esdeath's body, completely exposed and surging like a tsunami. She firmly believed that the opponent Yumesaki had found for her was absolutely the real deal. Because of that, she opened the engagement at full power.
Reinhard watched the incoming ice blades and the massive frozen ring trailing right behind them, his sky-blue eyes showing no trace of panic or hesitation.
His right hand moved, drawing the blade resting at his waist.
The Dragon Sword Reid.
His most stubborn partner. It would only ever leave its scabbard when facing a worthy opponent. But right now, the sword cleared its sheath without a single shred of hesitation. Without even waiting for Reinhard to pull it free, the blade actively leapt from its housing. It, too, recognized Esdeath as a powerful foe.
Reinhard flicked his wrist, the body of the blade tracing a path that was concise to the absolute limit. Compared to Esdeath's roaring assault, Reinhard's defense could almost be called plain. There was no flashy sword light, no blinding special effects—just a simple, ordinary horizontal slash.
Yet, that exact slash cut precisely into the gaps between the five rushing icicles.
The moment the steel blade collided with the ice, he used the impact of the first projectile to slightly twist his wrist, redirecting the momentum of his blade directly into the second and third. In a single fluid sweep, all five ice blades shattered almost simultaneously. The frozen shards ricocheted violently into the surrounding area, peppering the stone walls and leaving behind deep, dense pockmarks.
Even without the Divine Protection of the Sword Saint, Reinhard was still the Sword Saint. The years of diligent study and relentless training he had put in would never betray him.
But in the very next fraction of a second, Esdeath's frozen ring had already swung down, hovering barely three meters above his head.
Reinhard didn't try to block it head-on. He slid his left foot back half a step, pivoting his torso slightly sideways as he dropped his shoulder, letting the massive frozen ring tear past less than a palm's width away from his chest. It was the epitome of absolute mastery breeding absolute confidence.
The ice ring slammed into the ground, triggering a deafening explosion. The frozen bedrock shattered across a wide area, sending rocky debris and ice shards flying like armor-piercing bullets in all directions.
The resulting shockwave whipped Reinhard's long red hair back, and his clothing flapped wildly in the wind, but his body didn't budge an inch. His feet remained rooted to the ground as if anchored deep into the earth.
From that alone, it was clear that Esdeath wasn't holding back a single thing.
Therefore, Reinhard had no intention of holding back either.
The moment the ice ring bit into the ground, he stepped his right foot forward, shifting his center of gravity from a defensive retreat into a sudden forward surge. The transition between the movements was as flawless as a river rounding a smooth bend.
He brought his sword up from below, the tip tracing the side of the frozen ring. The friction generated a blinding shower of sparks before he suddenly exerted massive force right at the thickest part of the ring's base.
The vibration from the steel blade traveled straight up Esdeath's arm through the ice, numbing her grip and forcing a split-second opening in her stance.
And in that precise, microsecond window, the tip of Reinhard's sword was already resting right at her throat.
The strike was fast. So fast that Esdeath hadn't even clearly registered the motion of his wrist.
At the absolute last second, she instinctively threw her head back. The tip of the blade grazed her chin as it passed, leaving a shallow red line across her skin. A single drop of fresh blood welled up from the scratch, but before it could even trickle down, the intense cold radiating from her body froze it into a dark red bead of ice.
Esdeath leaped ten paces backward, landing firmly on the icy ground. She extended the tip of her tongue, licking away the frozen bead of blood from her skin.
In just that brief, single exchange, Esdeath felt a sense of crisis she had never experienced before. That exact feeling of being pushed right to the edge of a cliff, coupled with the frantic rush of adrenaline pumping through her system, caused her pupils to dilate. Her breathing turned ragged, and her heart pounded inside her chest like a roaring war drum.
"Yes... That's it, exactly... just like this!"
She threw her arms wide, and the freezing air gathered frantically behind her. Blade after blade of solid ice materialized in the air, forming a dense, tightly packed vanguard that numbered in the hundreds. Every single tip pivoted in unison to point directly at Reinhard, transforming the dim cavern into what looked like a starlit night sky made of pure frost.
"Reinhard, let's kill each other with everything we've got!"
She slammed her hands together.
Hundreds of ice blades shot forward at once. The flight path of every single projectile was completely different, their speeds varying wildly, perfectly mimicking a carpet-bombing missile strike that blanketed both the sky and the earth.
The barrage rained down on Reinhard.
Reinhard remained completely unmoved, his brilliant blue eyes reflecting the incoming storm of ice. He took a single deep breath, the Dragon Sword in his hand moving so fast it blurred into a dense, impenetrable curtain of light.
Every single icicle that rushed into his space was systematically batted away by the steel in his hand. He stepped fluidly through the freezing rain, the scale of his movements incredibly small, but the angle of every pivot was mathematically perfect, forcing open a path of survival through the chaos.
The steel constantly clashed against the ice, creating a continuous, crisp ringing sound.
As one ice blade lunged toward him, the flat of his sword slid along its side, deflecting its trajectory right into another incoming projectile so that both shattered in midair. As another blade flew at him from behind, he executed a blind, reverse-grip parry without even turning his head, the tip of his sword striking the exact center of gravity of the ice blade to flip it away. Three more dropped simultaneously from his left, right, and directly above; he twisted his frame through the microscopic gap, letting the left and right blades pass cleanly while his sword shattered the one coming from overhead.
The movements were effortless, flowing exactly like drifting clouds and running water—a true masterpiece of martial art.
But in that exact moment, Reinhard realized that Esdeath had vanished.
His pupils contracted slightly. He instantly understood that the fierce barrage of ice blades had been a feint from the very beginning; the true killing blow was never the projectile storm. It was Esdeath herself, using the distraction to conceal her presence.
Where was she? In front? Behind? Above?
Reinhard sharpened his senses, looking in all six directions and listening to all eight points of the compass, searching for her location.
Right then, the frozen ground beneath his feet violently ruptured.
A hand shot out from beneath the ice, five fingers flexing like a claw to lock around his ankle in a vise-like grip. The temperature of that hand was terrifyingly low. The intense cold surged up his leg like a venomous serpent, seizing his muscles in an instant as the bone made a faint, cracking sound from the flash-freeze.
Esdeath erupted from beneath the ice, her long blue hair tangled wildly across her face. Her expression was completely distorted by manic euphoria, the grin stretching across her face so wide it looked ready to tear. Her entire left arm was encased in a massive, thick layer of ice, forming a colossal frozen lance that extended all the way from her shoulder to her fingertips.
She thrust it straight toward Reinhard's chest from zero distance.
"I caught you, Reinhard!!!"
With this strike, there was nowhere left to run.
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